Electronic information management systems often employ an internal database of information that may be retrieved and input into various computer applications by a user. A user will often retrieve only small portions of information from the internal database and transfer the desired portion of information into the user's computer application. However, when the user requires only small pieces of information from an external source, such as an internet website, an independent research report, or government statistical data, then the user must independently research and retrieve the desired information from each external source, and input the pieces of information into the user's computer application. The research and retrieval of the desired information may be time-consuming, costly, or redundant depending on the nature of the information.
In a typical example, research reports from professional organizations may be sold to the public, yet a user may desire only a small portion of information, such as only the conclusion or figures. The user may purchase the entire research report in order to obtain only the small portion of information that is desired, which may be an expensive option. A better solution for the user may be to obtain a tool that allows the user to purchase and automatically retrieve only the small portions of information that is desired from the external sources instead of paying for the entire research report.
In another example, the information that is researched and retrieved from external sources by the user may be continually changing information, such as weather reports, currency exchange rates, pricing information, or news headlines. To ensure that the data input into the computer application is updated correctly, the user must continually research and retrieve the desired information from the same external data sources on a repetitive basis and input the updated data into the computer application. Also, if the user is creating a data-intensive document that requires small portions of information from many different external sources, the research and retrieval may be very laborious and time-consuming. It would be advantageous to the user to obtain a tool that is able to continually update pieces of data that are input into the computer application and simplify the research and retrieval process for small pieces of information from many different external sources. A need exists for a tool that may be used to import readily available, useful pieces of information into computer applications, which may be automatically updated.